Indian slumdog millionaire built his empire on lies
Ambarish Mitra’s $ 1bn startup Blippar, filed for bankruptcy.
Ambarish Mitra’s $ 1bn startup Blippar, filed for bankruptcy.
Brief:
He claimed that he started from slums of Delhi. He didn’t.
He claimed that he had founded and sold his first business in India. He just worked as a contractor.
Also, he never built three large businesses in UK. No records were found.
He lied about his education qualifications. He never studied at London School Of Economics or University of London.
From $ 1bn to zero:
He raised $ 100mn dollars from investors.
He opened offices in 10 locations around the world. He appointed his father as director of Indian operation.
After a year of losing money it tried to sell to Snap Inc, but failed. It won’t even survive another week.
Are Delhi-NCR startups different?
Most Delhi-NCR startups are making huge losses. They are alive on successive rounds of borrowed money.
Paytm is losing money.
Zomato is ten years old and still in losses.
Oyo’s loss for FY 18 was INR 4897 crore. They are tone deaf.
Mobiqwik’s is second to Paytm in losses.
Grofers lost INR 237 crores in FY 17.
NDBJ Insight:
Early startups such as Apple built real things. They solves real problems. They did not just force down solutions.
Indian startups are solving third world problems with first world solutions.
Therefore, we have AI powered food deliveries, but hungry delivery boys. We have AI power bank wallets, but 75% of the population earning less than INR 5000/ month.